The Game Jumpers
by liqouricewhip
Summary: When a lightning strike resets most of the games and nearly destroys game central, it leaves the arcade open for an attack by a new breed of viruses caused by a glitch in several of the games. With the computers anti-virus fried and out of commission, it's up to a group of game characters to keep everyone safe and alive from the virus threat. (OC Included: Josh)
1. Chapter 1

Characters scrambled into their games as quickly as they could. From what was seen outside the arcade a storm was coming.

Storms were always bad. The threats of power outages loomed over the arcade. It was rare though. Even so it was frightening.

It didn't take long for Game Central to empty, for each and every game to be refilled with its characters.

"I hate storms." Josh muttered, pulling the blanket tightly around himself, brow furrowed. It was clear he was less than pleased. Just then the sound of thunder was heard throughout the arcade, causing a large leap from the ex-ninja.

Not even a moment after and Vanellope was laughing at the sight of Josh on the ceiling, clinging to it, blanket draped off him.

"What are ya, a cat?" Vanellope asked still snickering slightly.

"No!" Josh retorted, dropping down, back onto the bed. "I just happen to be very….agile." This only caused Vanellope to laugh harder.

"You're a cat then."

"I am not a-" Josh was quickly caught off by another bolt of lightning going off, causing him to scramble out of bed, onto the floor, under the bed.

"I'm pretty sure that's what cats do." Vanellope said, leaning over the side of the bed, looking under it at Josh.

"I was trained by a bunch of old guys to be super fast and agile. I am not a cat."

"Kitty then?"

Josh crawled out from under the bed, jumping up to his feet with a pout on his face.

"No! I am a ninja! I was trained to use many different weapons, know tons of different hand-to-hand fighting styles and was trained how to shoot a pistol by Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun!"

"And you're afraid'a lightning." Vanellope added with a smirk.

"That is a very reasonable fear!"

The conversation came to a halt when another lightning strike hit the arcade, causing a massive glitch to run through each and every game plugged in.

And before anyone knew it, everything reset.

A spark of electricity ran through game central, flowing to each game, turning them back on, waking everyone up.

"Sound off!" Calhoun called out as she examined herself, making sure nothing happened. It didn't take long for her soldiers to call out. "Murkowski! Hold down the fort. I'm going to go check on Fix-it." And with that she was off to see the Fixer in his game.

Josh however respawned in front of the code vault, laying down. His eyes blinked open and he took some deep breaths before sitting up.

"Ow…." He said quietly, rubbing the back of his neck. "That….wasn't supposed to hurt. I don't think." He jumped to his feet and began making his way back to Vanellope.

"Josh?" Vanellope said quietly, looking around the room. "Ey moron! Where are you?" she basically yelled, hands cupped as a megaphone.

"Here! I'm here!" Josh said, walking into the room. "Hello. Sorry." Vanellope turned to him and let out a sigh of relief.

"Moron." She said with a chuckle. "Come on. Let's go check on Stinkbrain." Taking Josh by the wrist, Vanellope began dragging him out of the castle.


	2. Niceland Showdown

Not many people were in game central. A few here and there, but most were still afraid of even leaving their games. And there was Josh along with Vanellope.

"Look!" Vanellope called, pointing at Calhoun. "Sarge!" she said, running over, pulling Josh with her. Calhoun held a fist up over her shoulder, telling the two to stop. She stepped forward, in front of the tunnel.

"What's going on?" Josh asked, stepping next to her.

"Fix-it's game hasn't turned back on yet."

Josh turned his head to the blackened tunnel.

"It is old." He said, head tilting to the side. Calhoun reached down and flicked the side of Josh's head, making him wince and hop back.

"Shut your pie hole. Give it a minute."

One minute. Then two. Three….almost an hour had passed before a little electricity had came from the tunnel, brining the game to life.

Not even waiting another second Vanellope bolted in, followed by Josh. Calhoun stood still for a moment, taking in a quick breath. A relieved one.

She lowered her arms and followed the two in. Not expecting the next part.

Josh and Vanellope watched the game with confusion. Every few seconds a red ripple of coding would run through the game like a wave, covering every inch of it.

Calhoun stepped in and raised a brow. Seeing the ripple of coding her instincts kicked in and she quickly stepped in front of the two, arms stretched out.

"What happened?" she asked Josh over her shoulder.

"Why are you asking me? I just got here."

"Trouble usually follows you." She was going to Felix's game, so taking a gun was something she usually didn't do.

Josh looked around Calhoun, over to Ralphs shack. The door was busted down. That's when a crash was heard.

A red flash of balled up coding smashed into the ground in front of Calhoun. She took a fighting stance, while Josh hopped up next to her, sword drawn.

The ball sprawled out, taking the form of what looked like a mangled dog. Before it even got the chance to lunge, Ralph slammed down on top of it, breaking it into bits of codes that flew everywhere.

"Ralph!" Vanellope said glitching over to him. "What the fudge is going on?"

Ralph knelt down, looking down at her.

"We don't know. There are these, things that are, well attacking us!" He said, clearly out of breath.

"Oh. Yeah. That's so much help." Josh retorted with a roll of his eyes.

"Hey!" Ralph said offended, standing up, turning his attention to Josh. "We've only been on a few seconds and those things just started attacking us!"

"Those?!" Calhoun yelled, stepping in front of Josh. Ralphs eyes shot open and he turned around, running back towards the building. Josh quickly followed.

"Stay here!" Josh ordered to Calhoun, pointing his sword at her. She was going to argue, but he then pointed at Vanellope. "I need you to watch Vanellope. I'll go help. Just stay here." He turned around and once again began following Ralph towards the Nicelander building.

The Nicelanders scrambled around the halls franticly, running as fast as they could with their little legs, viruses jumping around, chasing, attacking.

Gene along with Neil and a couple others hid in the penthouse, one virus crashing around, breaking tables, flipping chairs. It was different from the virus encountered outside. This one had a smaller lower half, and looked as if it were some sort of body builder. It moved slowly and clumsily.

It was looking for the eight-bit characters who cowered behind the bar.

"We need to run." Neil whispered.

"Run where? To the things outside?" Gene retorted just as quietly.

"Quiet you two." A Dianna said.

"I'm running!" And with that Neil jumped up, over the bar, making a run for the door. The large virus however, hit the couch, sending it flying towards him.

It was quick to smash into him, killing him. Dianna let out a scream, gaining the viruses attention. It jumped over, demolishing the bar, landing right on her, squishing her to a game over. Gene tried running but he got hit by the viruses arm, causing him to slam into the wall, deleting him.

None of them respawned.

Josh jumped up into the window Ralph smashed through. Ralph had already began fighting off viruses, doing his best to keep them away from the rooms, although the hallway was tiny and he was finding it difficult not crashing into the walls themselves.

Any virus that Ralph didn't get, Josh was on with his sword, slicing away at them.

There was something about these viruses, but Josh couldn't see it at the moment.

A smaller virus hopped over Ralph, landing on Josh.

"Ah. You son of a-" Josh grabbed the legs of the virus and tossed it off onto the ground. Pulling his pistol out, Josh quickly fired the clip into its head.

"Josh! Watch it!" Ralph called out. Turning around, Josh raised is pistol, which was stupid. He was out of ammo. The large virus slammed into Josh and he was sent back out the hole.

Josh was out cold as he fell towards the ground.

Calhoun's head shot up. She quickly ran over and slid under him, catching him. Not even a second later, Vanellope was next to them.

"We have to get out of here." Calhoun told her, standing up, unconscious Josh in arms. "Fix-it! Wreck-it!" She called up. Ralph tossed the very same virus that got Josh out the hole and followed it out. Felix came from the roof, hopping down the stairs. "Let's move it!" she ordered running towards the tunnel.

Only Ralph and Felix followed. Anyone left behind were going to have to face the viruses.


	3. Chapter 3

"You're panicking." Candlehead said quietly. But the worry in her voice was clear.

"Of course I'm panicking!" Rancis replied, throwing his arms in the air. "One of us has to be!" He added, turning to face the green-haired girl. "I can't be just...whelmed all the time!" Once finished his sentence, Rancis began pacing back and forth again.

The two ended up locking themselves in Gloyd's house. Gloyd however was not with them. They didn't know where he was. They merely ran to the closest house, which ended up being this one.

"We'll be okay." Candlehead assured Rancis, legs swinging gently back and forth. Rancis then swung back to face her, confused, but also frustrated at her lack of worry.

"What makes you so sure? How do you know?"

"I dunno." Candlehead admitted, shrugging. "Things kinda just workout for us sometimes."

"Workout? What about...King Candy?!"

"Beat by Ralph."

"When Bill went all power-crazy?" Rancis was really trying to get his point across, but there was always a good ending when it came to bad events in Sugar Rush. "Or Cameron!"

"Josh took care of them with all of Vanellope's friends." Candlehead knew that this would end up the same way. She was sure of it. Sure, right now it was bad, but it wouldn't stop Josh and them. Would it? Not likely.

"Where is Vanellope!? Where is Josh!?" Rancis asked, no where near calming down. "They haven't saved us yet! What if they're dead already?"

"Why do you have to be such a Negative Nancy?"

Rancis gave her a little glare, but it quickly disappeared with a loud crash outside the door, drawing both the racers attention away from each other.

"What was that?"

"I don't know..."

Over in the castle, Gloyd, Jubileena, Citrusella, and Swizzle were. They came to look for Vanellope, or even Josh, but neither of them were found. Leaving them trapped in the fungeon area. None of them were fairing well.

"Oh. Oh. Maybe we could eat the wall around the chain until we can pull it free and use that as a weapon!" Gloyd said, hopping over to the wall, next to a chain. Sesame wall. There was no way to get a good bite out of it. But that wouldn't stop the boy from trying.

"And do what? Ya saw those thin's. They're way faster than any'a us." Swizzle argued, hand swinging towards the door of the fungeon. "Soon as we open the door, they'll be all over us."

"Well I don't see you coming up with any bright ideas!" Gloyd retorted over his shoulder before going back to trying to eat the wall.

"Maybe we can talk to them?" Jubileena suggested, peeking up from her hands.

"Yeah. With the back end of a candy cane maybe." Gloyd said with a roll of his eyes, now attempting to pull the chain out with of course no success.

"How fast can they be? Maybe we can just run past pushing them?" That was Citrusella's plan anyway.

"Did ya not just hear me?" Swizzle asked. "They're much faster than us. Too fast. It's crazy!"

Gloyd had given up on the chain and was already coming up with another plan. Pulling the bars out from the window. But he couldn't reach.

"Swizzle! Shut up for a minute and come help me up!" He ordered, doing a little hop towards the barred window.

"Alright. But y'er feet better be clean." Swizzle said with a sigh, walking over.

Soon the two managed to actually pull out the three bars. It was pretty high up to try and jump to the ground, but Gloyd had other plans.

"Swizzle, Citrusella and I will take these bars and beat our way out." He said, swinging the bar around, nodding in approval.

"What about me?" Jubileena asked.

"You wait here until we clear the things out. We'll give you a call and follow when it's safe." Citursella wasn't all for this plan, but they didn't have many options and no one else seemed to be taking charge.

The three stood in front of the door, waiting for Jubileena to open it. And when she did they jumped out, swinging wildly, batting the virus creatures away, managing to push them back somewhat. There was a lot of them though.


End file.
